Reduce report generation from weeks to seconds

The National Bank of Greece (NBG) is optimizing its operations and technology architecture to fortify its market leadership position, while providing better customer service and increasing profitability. As part of this initiative, the bank is using SAS Business Analytics to improve its risk management processes, minimize its credit risk exposure and improve its capital adequacy calculations.

According to Dr. Alexandros Benos, Director of NBG's Risk Control and Architecture Division (GRCA), both credit risk measurement and capital analysis are core concerns for the group, which must comply with local and international capital adequacy rules, as well as continuously monitor the credit risk it undertakes across products, clients and countries.

Comprehensive data analysis requires only half the time it used to take, while report generation takes just three seconds instead of days or months.

Dr. Alexandros Benos
Director of Group Risk Control and Architecture Division

Reports in minutes, not days

Previously, NBG contended with segmented databases and disparate systems developed in-house to analyze and report on the credit risk exposure of its portfolio, as well as calculate its capital adequacy and impairment flows.

“Before, standard risk MIS report generation required 20 working days,” explains Benos. “We were able to move employees from arduous and repetitive tasks needed for reporting to other value-adding analysis projects, such as Basel II modeling and customer scoring. Comprehensive data analysis requires only half the time it used to, while report generation takes minutes instead of days.”

Benos says the bank needed a solution that did not require specialized programming skills and that could access a variety of data sources and formats, as well as handle large-scale data volumes to perform analytics.

The benchmark for data analysis

"SAS is helping us to address our key challenges," Benos says. "SAS is the benchmark for data analysis. We now have a single solution, with of all the necessary components for risk-management analysis, to access data from any system and develop powerful analytical models to better assess credit risk."

Before implementing SAS, the bank found it almost impossible to track delinquency patterns among its vintage consumer loans and credit cards.

"How did third quarter 2007 production of auto loans compare to third quarter 2008 in terms of more than 60 days past due in the first two years of their life? Such questions arise every day in our work, and answering them both quickly and correctly proves invaluable in making efficient policy decisions," Benos explains.

The solution also helps the GRCA perform vintage analysis on consumer loans, mortgages and credit cards and track account delinquencies across time and subsidiaries.

Benos foresees using SAS for similar applications in other divisions, such as small business loans. "This will contribute to improving customer service and portfolio management," he says, "as well as optimizing the bank's product marketing and offers to clients."

Challenge

Analyze large volumes of diverse data for credit risk management, generate and deliver reports more quickly, optimize precious capital to support both regulatory compliance and financial growth.